Octygone

Being a sparks and on call this week I just wondered what people on here would do if a particular fault happened in their house and what they would do to sort it.

So here goes......... the main RCD/trip pops out on the fuse board in your home leaving you with no power and when you try to reset it it pops straight back out........

what would you do (and I don't mean anything dangerous) no opening fuse boards or taking apart electrical items, to get some power back on......please electricians, don't reply just yet.

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devonutopia

I think I would unplug fuses for relevant rooms, finding which one is at fault

Then start unplugging appliances in that room until the RCD remained. Something is wrong with that appliance.

Beyond that, I'd be stuffed.

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Octygone

forgot to say I'll leave this thread to run for while ( 2 or 3 hours)and not answer straight away so as not to influence any answers

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Bigw2069

As per Jason I would turn all sockets/lights/spurs off and reset the RCD, then turn on appliances systematically to see where the fault is.

If it still trips then a heavy bit of duck tape to hold the RCD on

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Neo_VR

use my iphone to go on the internet instead

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RADIOTWO

I would NOT call out a Sparky at the silly prices they charge !

Radiotwo

vRSLen

I would isolate everything, and enable them one at a time to find the cause

It could be a naff RCD...

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auroan

Pretty much what others said. Isolate and test.

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daiking

Pull out the RCD and replace it with metal coat hanger wire...

Er, no I meant as others - switch all off and bring them on line 1 by 1. Like the time my wife blew up the dishwasher whilst I was taking a (electric) shower in the (pitch black) windowless bathroom.

vRSLen

If in doubt, smoke it out

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Basil

turn off all the individual smaller breakers, turn on the main one, then turn them all on one by one till the main goes.
Turn that one off again, turn on the main and check no others are at fault.
Go to the identified area and remove all plugged in appliances, back to breaker box and try again. If it trips, wiring fault.
If not, add appliances in one by one until you get a trip. That's the troublemaker...

Right?

I'll add in:
Q. What's black and shrivelled and hangs from the ceiling?
A. An amateur- DIY electrician.....

Bas

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Octygone

10 out of 10 Bas ...... As are most people ....you'd be surprised by what I and probably Bengie see day in day out.....have had 3 calls this week all for the same thing and all were sorted in minutes (1 kettle, 1 spin dryer and a fire) but it is most important to actually unplug the appliances as even plugged in and switched off they could show a fault (switch normally only turns of the the live side not neutral )

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Hedge

Whats an RCD? Still got a fuseboard.

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Octygone

Ahh but this costs the tennant absolutly nothing.....maybe the reason why we get so many stupid faults

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cjb

A Residual Current Device. It makes it harder to electrocute yourself by killing the power if it detects any leakage to earth.

Residual-current device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The leakage can be through faulty wiring, a faulty appliance, or someone electrocuting themselves.

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-- Chris
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The Devil may care, but I don't mind.

bengie

indeed most socket only have single pole isolation so leaving na item plugged in will not not isolate the neutral or earth so if that item has a neutral-earth fault operating the switch has no effect on the fault.

and yeah RadioTwo all electricians charge a fortune to come out where as every other trade on earth does it for free

trades aren't expensive individuals are

on large jobs I charge £20ph where as the companies i have worked for charge 4-5 times that so am I(an electrician) expensive?

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

bengie

come on then, how often have you told people they need to actually put money on their key meter in order to get electricity?

its amazing the amount of people that are unable to read the word DEBT above the value

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

Octygone

Far too often

.....the latest one is when they change suppliers and the question "are you on economy seven" crops up they say OH no we don't want that............and they dont get it storage heaters and off peak immersion heaters don't work very well with no supply

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bengie

yeah, get that too. or they ask for it bt the supplier c0cks it up and stops it from working, me i'll southeren electric no worries for a tenant as they answer quick and sort it out very quick but i just give them the number for british gas

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

cjb

Whenever people complain about labour costs, I always think about how much they expect to be paid. If I break down my (good but by no means huge) salary into hourly rate, added travel costs and other overheads (costs of tools/retraining for example), and added some for antisocial hours, my time would look quite expensive.

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-- Chris
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The Devil may care, but I don't mind.

bengie

exactly, i worked it out the other day that at work i get paid £21ph for the time i spend there(my salary for 37 hours per week not including holiday) and then get good holiday/pension/sickness/van etc all on top so if i was self emplyoed i'd want to cover that lot too so £40-50 an hour probably be needed.

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swedishskoda

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andypandypoos

I'd kick my brother in the **** and get him to sort it

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Note: This statement was most likely made with a usual dry sense of humor. It was in no way made to offend anyone who may be easily offended. If you find yourself offended by such a statement, you needed more hugs as a child, or more beatings. Whichever you didn't get enough of, you need more of. Probably beatings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bohdi This was never about the money, this was about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit. We stand for something. We are here to show those guys that are inching their way on the freeways in their metal coffins that the human sprit is still alive

como estan, puta?

philc

I've actually used the step by step fault finding process when I had that exact situation (I'm not an electrician, but a large lump of my career was in electronics, so I have a bit of knowledge). Bearing in mind it was 3 am, and I had a tropical fish tank to keep alive, I finally isolated the dodgy circuit, ran an extension lead from a good circuit and went back to bed. The next morning, the fault had gone away. This happened a couple of time, and I finally realized that it only happened when it rained heavily. And the problem circuit included the conservatory.
A bit closer investigation showed that some %&^&( of an installer had managed to stick a screw through the mains cable where it ran under the door frame, pulling the insulation off the live and neutral, but not shorting them to anything.
Then the rain came down and completed the circuit.

Phil

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smstext

ive just seen this and even through basil got the answer, yes i would follow the process of elimination starting from where its working and working back on myself to the box or from the box and out. you need to see where the electric is up to and eliminate the working things till you left with the one/s that are not working and then you have basically found the fault.

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